Please, no lockout beards this time around

That shortened season is remembered more fondly around San Antonio than any other league market because of the Spurs’ championship at the end. But in most places, that season is remembered more for giving us David Stern’s ridiculous lockout beard.

The NBA’s chief executive became more frustrated the longer the lockout stretched and showed his mouting aggravation by neglecting his razor for several months.

Stern’s stubbly growth first surfaced in August before he finally and thankfully shaved in early December.

Most recalled that his beard lasted throughout the lockout, but it was gone about the time he whacked the All-Star Game in early December — about a month before the lockout was settled. But it still is one of the more memorable images from that stoppage of play.

The players had their own dumb comments during the 1998-99 lockout.

Patrick Ewing then was president of the NBA Players Association. While planning for some player-sponsored exhibition games meant for financial relief for the union’s neediest members, Ewing made a comment that still rings hollow about how self-absorbed and out of touch they were compared to some of their fans.

“If you look at people who play professional sports, not a lot of them are financially secure,” Ewing said in a sound bite that still can be heard on some national talk radio shows to this day. “They make a lot of money and they also spend a lot of money.”

And Kenny Anderson tried to explain how he would cope with the lockout at that time during a detailed story about his finances in the New York Times, spending $75,000 annually for insurance and maintenance of his eight cars.

Something was going to have to give at the time, leading Anderson to make a simple declaration. “You know, you just get rid of the Mercedes,” he said, adding, “It’s like they say, the more you make, the more you spend. I have to start getting tight.”

Those comments still ring almost 13 years later.

Here’s hoping this lockout doesn’t provide that kind of infamy remembered much later for either side.

Like Anderson said, it’s time for both sides to “get tight” with their public images during this lockout.